River groups joins gas court fight

PITTSBURGH — A brief was filed July 8 in Pennsylvania Supreme Court, Western District by Nockamixon Township, Delaware Riverkeeper Network, American Littoral Society and the Damascus Citizens for Sustainability in support of two Pennsylvania towns who have filed appeals to the state’s Supreme Court. Several municipalities have asked the high court to overturn lower court decisions that prohibit municipalities from establishing local ordinances regulating natural gas drilling. The Court is considering the extent to which the state Oil and Gas Act preempts local ordinances. The townships want to regulate aspects of natural gas extraction in order to protect their residents and natural and public resources. Range Resources and Huntley and Huntley natural gas developers have challenged them. Natural gas well drilling and development in the Marcellus shale formation of the Upper Delaware area has prompted the signing of hundreds of leases for wells on private land locally. Environmental concerns center on the degrading impacts of natural gas development on water resources and other watershed features.